MYSTIC FALLS HOSPITAL

"Please, Damon."

Damon scoffed on the other side of the call, "So it's your turn now? My answer is the same, no."

Aella basically had a mini tantrum in an empty corridor at the hospital at Damon's negativity, "It has to be done, Damon. Isobel has Jeremy. I told you when we discovered the device, the spell is easy to do; Bonnie can do this."

It was silent for a minute, and Aella believed she had gotten through to him, "I don't trust her or her behavior lately." Aella rolled her eyes as she glared down at the phone. "She told you that you were insignificant. I thought you believed that just like I do."

He was right; she was having strong feelings about Bonnie's choice of words. "But she wouldn't risk Jeremy. He's like a brother to her, to all of us."

"I don't trust words, Aella," Damon confessed to her. "I even question actions, but I never doubt a pattern. Bonnie has repeated time and time; she will not support helping vampires."

Aella felt sick; he was right, Damon was utterly right. And so she told him that, "You're right, Damon, you've been around as long as Stefan and know how to judge someone. And yes, Bonnie's choices lately haven't supported you, Stefan, or even me."

Aella blinked the tears away at her current relationship with her cousin, "But Bonnie is my blood, and we were raised to make the right choices. This is the right choice, and I trust her because if I don't say that... a relationship built up of love, honesty, and loyal family values is ruined. That's too much to throw away over a vendetta."

Tears ran down her face, and she wiped them away quickly, but Damon could hear the tears in her words, "Please, Damon."

It was quiet, too quiet as Damon thought her answer over. It was quiet enough that Aella checked if the call was still connected until he finally responded to her before hanging up.

"Fine."

Letting out a breath of relief Aella left the empty corridor and returned to where Caroline and Tyler were waiting for news on Matt. As she entered the waiting area, she saw only Tyler and took a deep nervous breath. The looks he'd been shooting her since she helped rescue Matt hadn't stopped. Caroline had been there to be a buffer, now, it was just the two of them, and it was time to talk.

"Where's C?"

Tyler looked up to her as she sat next to him. He raised from his bent-over position to sitting up straight as he answered her, "Matt was asking for her. The nurses remembered him when Vicki was in here and dropped the 'family only' rule."

"That's nice of them," Aella's smile was shaky.

Tyler's brows furrowed as he thought of his words, "Vicki? This all connects to her, right?"

'Oh boy,' Aella thought to herself. It seemed they were starting off with the most complicated stuff first. She rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans, "It does, and it doesn't."

Tyler watched as she frowned to herself for a minute, then she turned her body towards his, "To put it bluntly, Ty. The supernatural is real." Tyler wrinkled his nose, "Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, Ghosts, Sirens... I think."

Tyler let out a sharp laugh, "You can't be serious."

Aella's eyes narrowed, and nose flared, "Would I taint Vicki's memory like that?"

"No," Tyler shook his head. "No, you wouldn't, but it's so hard-"

"-Hard to believe?" Aella snorted out, "Believe me, I know all about that. I've had to explain it to six people so far, and every single one of them had the same reaction."

"Well, who told you?" Tyler questioned. She must have had the same reaction.

"No one," Aella admitted with a small grin. "My mom and dad brought me up in this life. The supernatural is my life."

"So, um..." His hands grasped at his jeans. "What are you?"

Aella smiled radiantly as she answered, always proud to admit who and what she was, "I'm a witch, Tyler."

Tyler's grip lessened at her smile, and his mind returned to that night in his room, "You admitted that to me..."

"I never lie to my friends, Tyler," Aella smiled softly but went to more detail with a little shrug. "But there are moments when truths have to be hidden to protect something much bigger than you or me."

Tyler nodded at her words, "Vicki."

The burn of tears began within Aella's eyes at Vicki's thought. She nodded to Tyler to confirm, "Vicki... she had a lot of troubling feelings and thoughts which led her down a path she couldn't return from."

"What happened, Aella?" Tyler pressed the side of his palms, resting in a prayer like shape, to his lips. This was what he had been longing to hear since Vicki's death, the real reason, not some bullshit overdose story.

"She met someone who felt as dead inside as she did..." Aella began as she wiped her nose. No words had ever been so true. Damon wasn't only dead inside physiologically, but emotionally too; it's why Vicki had been so drawn to him. "In a drunken binge, she was killed... with vampire blood in her system. When she woke, because of the vampire blood, she had 24 hours to decide to live for the rest of the time as a vampire... or die as a human."

Tyler frowned, "But her body was found? Did she..?"

"That's a part of the 'does, and it doesn't' answer I gave you at the beginning," Aella shrugged. Even after all these months, those final moments with Vicki, she would never forget one moment. "In the end, she chose to die as a human and knew that was the best decision. But she had one unresolved issue she couldn't let go unresolved..."

It didn't take a genius to know who Aella was talking about, "Matt," Tyler weakly laughed out.

"Matt," Aella nodded with him, tears now falling down her face at Vicki's desperation. "She couldn't let him down one final time. She had to make him forgive her for everything... But in those 24 hours of transitioning, the mind is tested, and Vicki placed herself in a cage of beating hearts surrounding her, calling her to taste their blood."

"The Halloween party," Tyler summarised correctly, again.

"Yeah," Aella roughly wiped her cheeks. "And she couldn't resist anymore. The call to blood was too much for her, and she attacked someone, drinking their blood. One drop was all it took for Vicki's life to change forever." She looked to Tyler and hoped he saw the honesty in her eyes, the pain she still felt. "She didn't want it; she told me she didn't want to be a vampire. Unfortunately, her newly inherited vampire instincts demanded she have blood, and she went to attack. To save many lives, hers was taken a final time."

Tyler nodded stoically at what Aella told him, "So the woods, the search, where she was found..."

"All that Vicki wanted," Aella sadly admitted. "So was going to run away, but she knew Matt would never stop looking for her... In the end, what she wanted, we gave her. It was just tragic her final minutes had to be that way."

"Who turned her?" Tyler suddenly asked, and Aella could see a wave of anger growing. "Who is the vampire that did this to?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," Aella sighed. Damon was finally on their side. She didn't need Tyler going off at him, and Damon's personality returned to its former one. "It was dealt with at the time. There's no need to dig up old wounds."

Tyler stood up angrily as he stared down over Aella, "It killed her; it deserves to die too."

"It was dealt with, Tyler," Aella admitted, not one ounce of her afraid of his temper. She'd faced bigger and badder things. "Two wrongs don't make a right."

Tyler, red in his vision, pulled Aella up by her shoulders and held up her tight as he demanded, "Who was it?"

With a wave of her hands, Tyler was wrenched away from her and thrown onto the floor, "That's enough, Tyler!" His eyes could only stare at her wildly, at his actions and at her power. She marched forward and pointed down at him, "I dealt with it, and it never happened again. You may be bigger than me, but you will never understand the power in my blood. I used that power to go after Vicki's killer, and that is the end of that. Got it?"

"Is everything okay?"

Aella didn't turn at the nurse's voice, her eyes bearing down on Tyler. Only when he nodded hesitantly, his eyes full of apology, did Aella turn with a fake smile. "Sorry, he tripped." She turned back to Tyler and held out her hand, "Right?"

Tyler didn't hesitate to take the hand and pulled himself up, wiping his clothes down as he answered the nurse, "Right."

The nurse accepted this with a gentle smile, "You can see your friend now."

The teens nodded and began walking to the room they knew Matt and Caroline were in; as they reached the open door, Aella took Tyler's arm, "Tyler?" He looked at her, but she could see uneasiness in his eyes. "Things got heated back there, and I'm sorry. There's more you need to know, and when you're ready, I'm happy to answer anything else."

Tyler didn't say anything back. He just nodded. The two entered the room to a very smiley Matt, pain medication fully functioning, and a laughing Caroline. The latter held her arms out for Aella to fall into.

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

Aella walked up to her home, cell phone against her ear as the beep indicated for her to leave a message. "Hey, B. I know things have been bad between us lately, but I'm really proud of you for removing the spell from the device. Damon was really hesitant to let you do it, but Elena and I knew you wouldn't let Jeremy or us down. I hope we can talk properly, just us, and we can deal with what's been happening... I miss my Bon Bon. Love you."

Sighed tiredly, she moved to open the door when it was opened for her, and her eyes happily locked onto her boyfriends.

"How's my girl?"

Aella fell into his frame, her heart beating madly at just how three words could make her day go from shitty to excellent in .2 seconds. "I'm tired."

Rubbing her back gently, he pulled her into the house, shutting the door as he kissed her head, "How's Matt?"

"It's broken," Aella told him, cuddling into him. "Because of the weight of the trailer, it broke the bone into two clean pieces. He's now got a cast and is very happily drugged up."

Stefan curled his lip as his mind imagined Matt high. It seemed it would be quite funny, "And Tyler."

Aella pulled away, chin resting on his chest as she pouted, "Not well, but it's something to think about later. I know he won't say anything."

Aella heard footsteps and turned to see Jenna and Elena; Jenna smiled at the couple, "How's the patient?"

"It's broken," Aella explained again. "He has to wear a cast, which Caroline is freaking out about because it goes against the authenticity of their Civil War-themed float, but Matt's too high to care." The witch looked for Jeremy, "Where's J? Stefan texted he was fine, but I thought you wouldn't let him out of sight."

Elena chuckled and nudged Jenna, "She tried, but Jeremy didn't want to be around Uncle John, and obviously neither did Anna."

Aella frowned, "What happened?"

Jenna nodded to the kitchen, and they all followed. "Tea?" Elena and Stefan nodded, and surprisingly so did Aella, "I would love a camomile tea."

They sat down, Aella cuddling up to Stefan before she looked to Elena, "What actually happened today exactly?"

Elena took a deep breath, "Isobel showed up at school; she knew all of us and how we were all connected. She'd compelled Tyler, and from then on, she knew who were the weakest targets."

"Knowing we would all help Matt, she took the person that meant everything to Elena," Stefan explained.

Aella nodded swiftly, "Jeremy. Her blood, her brother."

"What they didn't count on was Jeremy knowing," Jenna proudly told them as she carried over the tea on a tray. "They thought they could manipulate him, but with you all being so open and honest, Jeremy knew they'd never hurt him. He stayed silent."

"Wait a sec," Aella frowned just before she could take a sip. "You keep saying 'they,' don't you mean her?"

Stefan removed the hot tea from her hands, "I'll hold this for just a second..."

"John knew where she was the entire time," Elena sadly explained.

"What?!" Aella exclaimed, and Stefan knew he'd made the right decision to remove the tea from her. "He knew about Jeremy too?"

Jenna shrugged, "He said he didn't and that the plan was to only threaten a few of Elena's friends. He didn't expect Isobel not to be a psychopath and take things too far."

Aella's forehead puckered, "You're acting as if he told you this himself..."

Elena turned to Jenna, pointedly, "Well, he is upstairs resting."

"I'm sorry, but what the fuck!?" Aella looked to Jenna as if she was mad. "Why is he still here? Why haven't we run him out yet?"

Jenna calmly took a sip of her tea and set it down before she looked at Aella, "Because at the end of the day, he's the uncle to Elena and Jeremy. We both have shared guardianship over the two. If I kick him out, he can go to the police or get a judge on his side. Him being the Gilbert of the family rather than a Sommer's, like me and fact he has an income and power around here, he's more likely to win and kick me/us out."

"Then I say we kill him," Aella shrugged coolly.

Jenna only sent her a very parental look, "We're not killing him... yet."

"So why is he 'resting' upstairs?" Aella questioned using air quotes and a snarl.

"That's another reason I haven't kicked him out," Jenna began explaining. "After he realized Isobel had taken Jeremy, John apparently, disagreed. Her minions beat him up."

Aella snorted into her drink once Stefan had given her back as she'd calmed down, somewhat. "Did it knock some sense into him?"

Stefan gave her a look, and Aella could only shrug. "So he finally came to his senses just how cuckoo Isobel was. So why is Jeremy not here thanking his savior?"

"He still killed Anna's mom," Elena shrugged. "And from the small amount Jeremy said while they were stuck with Isobel, John tried everything he could to deter him from the relationship and his loyalty to us."

Stefan drank his tea before looking down at Aella, "Jeremy and Anna are at the Boarding House. I think that's the best place for them, at least right now."

Aella nodded in agreement as Jenna let out a wide yawn and stood up, "Well, storytime is over, and I am ready for bed. Goodnight."

Elena stood too, "Me too, it's been an emotional day."

Aella and Stefan wished the two goodnight and watched them walk away. Aella moved closer to her boyfriend, taking comfort in his Stefan smell. After a few minutes of quietness, Stefan looked down at her closed eyes, "You ready for bed?"

Aella's eyes didn't open as she settled into him, "Can we just stay here a little longer, just us two, and pretend today wasn't so eventful?"

Stefan pulled her even closer, his lip curling at the relaxed sigh Aella let out as she cuddled up to him. He kissed her forehead gently, "We can stay here for as long as you like."

SHEILA BENNETT'S HOUSEHOLD

Bonnie knocked on her grandmother's door, tears falling down her face. Sheila opened the door, not expecting her granddaughter to be standing there or the state she was in. Her actions were automatic as she pulled her in close, "Oh baby, what's wrong."

Bonnie held onto her grandmother and began sobbing, "I betrayed the person who trusted me the most in the world. And the thing I hate the most is that I don't feel bad about it..."

Sheila frowned, "Betra-" She rolled her eyes and pulled Bonnie into her home, "You need to tell me everything, starting from the very beginning."

Bonnie nodded and followed her in, the voicemail on her phone repeating itself in her hand. The trust in her cousin's voice as she thanked her, unknowing that she'd actually been betrayed.

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

Stefan tensing is what had Aella looking up to him in confusion, "Wha-"

Stefan's finger on her lip stopped her from saying anything else out loud. He listened carefully to John, talking on the phone in the other room.

John had come down after Jenna and Elena had retreated to bed, believing he was the only one downstairs. Stefan had ignored him as Aella dozed against him until his phone had rung and he heard a familiar voice on the other end.

Aella watched his facial expression closely as he listened intently. She heard the front door open and close, and then Stefan's eyes went wide, meeting hers immediately.

"What?" Aella whispered, and Stefan leaned close as he told her what Isobel had just said to John. Aella's eyes closed sadly, "Oh my god..." She looked back to Stefan shaking her head in disbelief, "Damon was right."

Stefan nodded stiffly, "John Gilbert is Elena's father."